The Visitor
by wimseyfive87
Summary: After Henry leaves Adam in the hospital in the series finale, Adam has an unexpected visitor. A mysterious woman who may know both Adam and Henry's big secret. But is she a friend or foe?
_This is one way Adam could have escaped at the end of season one. Of course, if the show had continued, I think Adam would have made an even greater bad guy. I liked the idea that there were more immortals out there than just Henry and Adam. The woman that popped into my head would be a mighty opponent for the pair of them I think._

 _I, sadly, don't own Forever. If I did, the show would run for 10 years! Also, I know there is no Duke of Nottingham, but I needed Adam to cause a stir in Hampton Court. Please enjoy._

The view of the white sterile hospital room ceiling grew stale after only a few hours, as Adam knew it would. He had watched it turn from bright white to a dark cream as the sun set on another day of his living hell. The nurses had turned off most of the lights at night, thinking it would soothe him and help him sleep. They shouldn't have bothered. He wouldn't be sleeping any time soon. He was generally a patient man - living two thousand years will do that to a person. But he was still seething at his betrayal by Henry. The only other immortal he had encountered over his long life. An English doctor with a too pure of a heart to be believable. He had tired to infect and destroy that heart - making him kill a man, making him betray his friends. In Henry Morgan, Adam had thought that at long last he had found a friend or at least a temporary ally. Someone who understood him and his predicament. A few nights ago, Adam had thought they could solve both their problems - kill each other with the weapons that had made them immortal. Henry had stolen the Roman dagger that had killed Adam, while Adam had stolen the pistol that had killed Henry. Adam had been ready for a good old-fashioned duel. Instead, the stupid man had tricked him into this horrible, paralyzed state. An air embolism that had trapped his body between life and death. Henry had claimed he wasn't afraid of death, but Adam knew he wasn't ready to leave his friends and family. That was too bad. As soon as Adam broke free of his body prison, he would make sure Henry felt every death he had ever experienced a hundred times over. He didn't care if it took another two thousand years, he would find a way.

"Hello, Adam."

Adam blinked, the only movement he could make in his vegetative state. A dark-haired woman stood before him, smiling. She was clad in a dark peacoat, gloves and a long scarf. How did she sneak into his room? He didn't think she was a nurse and it was too late for visiting hours. What new hell could this be?

The woman smiled. There was a glint in her dark eyes that caused a distant bell to ring in his memory. He dismissed it as a trick of the light.

"Oh, yes, I know Henry put you under an assumed name, but then again Adam isn't your real name either, is it? I know all about your little game with Henry. I've played that sort of game with him before and it didn't end too well for me either. But enough about Henry. Let's talk about you because I am a huge fan!"

The woman sat close to him on the bed. He watched her warily, The life support machines ticked on eternally beside him, filling the room with their endless chatter. The woman kept smiling at him, like a cat who had caught the juiciest, fattest mouse of them all. Something like fear began to trickle down his spine. The dim bell was ringing louder in his mind.

"You probably don't remember me, but I remember you. It was at Hampton Court and you had gotten into a silly fight with the Duke of Nottingham. You claimed that he cheated at cards, but he always cheated at cards. I guess you took offense at that. You challenged him to a duel. A stupid thing to do really, because Nottingham cheated at everything. What made you think he would until the count of ten before striking you?

"The court was practically foaming at the mouth at the drama of it all. Everyone wanted to go witness this duel. Of course, technically we couldn't because they were illegal and we'd all be arrested, but who cared? It was the juiciest of intrigues and we all hated Nottingham. A small army of us snuck out of the palace to watch your duel. Well, Nottingham cheated, of course, and attacked you too soon. He made quite a show of celebrating, so no one was watching you die. Why should they? You were a dead man. No one really knew you at court. You never intrigued or flirted or fought for the King's attention. You were a nobody. Why would those idiots care if you had died? So I was the only one watching when you disappeared."

Adam's eyes widened in surprise and fear. He remembered that day and that duel. All his deaths were tattooed onto his mind like rings inside a tree. He remembered seeing a woman standing over him, her face hidden by a cloak. But he remembered her eyes. Brown, almost dark eyes that glinted with something colder, darker than evil. She had smiled before he had finally died.

"Oh, good, you do remember me. Excellent. Because I never forgot you. I thought you had executed an amazing magic trick to make yourself vanish. I thought you'd turn up at court the next day, ready to amaze us all with your witchcraft. Instead, no one saw you again. Everyone forgot about you within a week and they all just assumed your body was rotting out in that field. I never told anyone any different. Why should I tell them such a juicy secret? Then I saw you again a year later at Nottingham country estate."

Adam didn't dare take his eyes off the woman beside him. Even if he wasn't paralyzed, he wouldn't dare move away from his creature. Something told him it would be a very fatal mistake. The look in her eyes bothered him. It wasn't exactly madness, but something deeper and darker. His mind was ringing in constant warming. He should know her name. In fact, he had a feeling it was dangerous to forget her name.

"You were skulking in the shadows, but I saw you at Nottingham's. You were just bidding your time. Waiting for the best moment to get your revenge. Rather naughty of you to do it when the King was visiting though. It caused quite the row when you poisoned Nottingham's nightly ale. I saw you do it. You never meant to harm the King, but he was always so petrified of death. Any whisper of plague caused him to flee into the hills, his tail between his legs. Yes, your naughty deed caused quite the scandal. They never did find out who actually poisoned dear Nottingham. That was alright, I despised the greedy bastard - we all did. We only tolerated him because he was such a tremendous flirt and a wild bull in bed. So I wasn't upset that you came back and killed him. I was just upset that I never learned your juicy secret."

The woman leaned in closer to Adam. He saw she wasn't as young as she had seemed at first - mid 30's, instead of mid 20's. Her eyes were large and luminous in the dim hospital room. Her mouth never stopped wearing a smile. This time it was a naughty smirk. Adam felt another trickle of fear down his spine. He watched as she unwound the scarf around her neck. A thin white scar, like a gruesome necklace encircled her neck.

"You see, it would have helped to have learned you secret. Then I would have been prepared. It wasn't long after your nocturnal visit, that I found myself betrayed by my husband and sentenced to death. Beheading. It's one of the fastest ways to go really. A quick pinch and it's all over - if the hangman is an expert. Mine was a French swordsman. Quite brilliant really. That way he could take his sword back to France with him and no one would be any wiser as to what happened.

"One minute, I was kneeling in front of the block, making my peace with God. Or plotting revenge on the whole rotten countryside. I forget which. The next, my life was flashing before my eyes. I thought, yes, this is the end. Then I woke up in the Thames! Can you believe it? Oh, it didn't happen right away. You'll remember - the first one takes the longest. I was buried for at least a day before I found myself alive again in the Thames. It scared me out of my wits at first, but then I remembered you, Adam, and you're lovely little secret. That must have been where you ended up after disappearing that first time. You can say I've been a huge fan ever since."

The woman leaned over to look at the life support machines beside him. She was wrapping the scarf around her hands. Adam watched her out of the corner of his eye. If he could speak, he wouldn't know what to say. Another immortal? Was there some kind of fan club that he didn't know about? How could it be?

"You know, the best thing about living for centuries? Seeing how history treats you. Now you've gone down as a murderer, traitor and betrayer. A great friend of Caesar. You and your friends Brutus and Cassius thought you were doing such a great deed, by bringing down a tyrant. Instead, you ensured that the Roman Empire would live on for ages to come. It's a quite a shame your friends got carried away with their daggers. A wound to the stomach is a rather nasty way to die. Then again, if they hadn't been so knife happy, you wouldn't be here with me"

The woman sat up again and looked again at Adam.

"Now, I've gone down in history as a whore and a witch and every evil thing in the book. Not very flattering, but I've lived with it. The best part is watching Hollywood portray you on screen. It's marvelous. If those writers only knew how scandalous it really was back then, they'd couldn't print enough tickets to the show! My favorite adaptation was from America. It was on cable, I think. The Tudors, they called it. The actress they had playing me was quite good. I thought about visiting her once and giving her a few pointers, but we can't just have anyone learning our secret, can we?"

She leaned closer, her breath a whisper against his cheek.

"Oh, yes, Adam, there are a dozen or so of us immortals in the world - not many, but enough to make history exciting. If anyone knew our secret, we'd all be captured and tortured to death over and over again. But you know how that feels, don't you?"

She leaned over and grasped something on the side of his bed.

"Listen well, Adam. You were playing a nice cat and mouse game with our friend Henry. But it was just that - a game. Now, if you want to sit at court and play with kings, you need to play dirty. Find me when you're ready to really torment someone. I can teach you so many things. Don't think just because I'm a woman, I haven't gotten my hands bloodied. My first murder was my husband. By the time I found him again, he was so old and gross and fat that all I had to do was jam a pillow in his stupid face. Not before he got a good, long look at me. I think he went mad at the end, seeing my face like that. Serves him right, too. Killing me just so he could knock up some other whore and in the hope of a son. I would have given him a son, if he had given me time! He had a perfectly good heir in our daughter - he didn't really need a son anyway. Well, she sure proved him wrong, didn't she?

"You have no idea how delicious that moment felt, killing a King. Come find me when you're ready to cause real pain. Betray me or try to warn Henry, I will send you straight back to this prison. Do you understand me?"

The woman's face was inches from Adam's own face. Her eyes were wild and her smile was stretched wide like a grimace. If he could tremble in fear, he would. Maybe it would have been better to stay alone. He didn't like the fact that this woman could come after him. She was a menace in her first life - Henry VIII's court should never have let her out of their sight - even in death.

"Blink if you understand me."

Adam blinked.

"Good," she grinned, her teeth sharp in the dim light. "We'll have some good, crazy fun when you're ready. The best part is that we have all of eternity to play. As for Henry - don't worry- I have something horrible planned for him. I have to have my revenge too."  
The woman's arm moved next to his bed. He heard the sound of something brushing against the floor - the life support cords!

"By the way, in case you've forgotten - my name's Anne. Anne Boleyn."

She flashed him one more horrible smile and pulled her arm. Adam gasped as his life flashed before his eyes. He felt the familiar feeling of falling through a large hole in time. He hoped that this time it would take - this time he would finally die. He even began to say the words he had forgotten long ago - a prayer to the gods. Instead, he awoke with a crash in the Hudson. He gasped, sucking in the cold night air, thrashing his arms and legs and just relishing the fact that he could move again.

For a moment, Adam treaded water in the New York harbor. He knew he didn't have much time. Anne would find him soon enough, if he didn't find her. He wanted his revenge upon Henry, but something told him, crossing Anne would be worse than any pain he could inflict upon Henry. He should have left it all well alone, for Anne was crazier than he ever had been. He didn't fancy the idea of her loose upon the world. As Adam began to swim to shore, he thought of Henry. The good doctor had no idea how easy he had had it when only Adam was his enemy. He didn't want to think about what horrors Anne had in store for Henry - especially if he had once defeated her. Adam slipped into the quite darkness of night, afraid for the first time in his life. Afraid that he had perhaps met his match and he would never escape her.


End file.
